{{Short description|Australian film director and cinematographer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}} {{Use Australian English|date=January 2014}} '''Walter Franklyn Barrett''' (1873 – 16 July 1964), better known as '''Franklyn Barrett''', was an Australian film director and cinematographer.<ref name="please">{{Citation | title=Please, Mr. Policeman, May I Make a Movie? For "Everyones" by Franklyn Barrett. | journal=Everyones. | date=10 December 1930 | location=Sydney | publisher=Everyones Ltd | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-564399119 | id=nla.obj-564399119 | access-date=20 April 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref> He worked for a number of years for West's Pictures. It was later written of the filmmaker that "Barrett's visual ingenuity was to be the highlight of all his work, but... his direction of actors was less assured".<ref name="shirley">Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, ''Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years'', Currency Press 1989 p 39</ref>
==Early life and career== Barrett was born in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, and was raised by his aunt. He was a professional violin player and amateur photographer and claims to have seen the first exhibit of motion pictures at the Empire Theatre in London.<ref name="Paramount">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article29666481 |title=PARAMOUNT PICTURES. |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Hobart, Tas. |date=15 March 1927 |access-date=24 April 2012 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref name="when">{{Citation | title=When a Man Could Live On Australian Films. | journal=Everyones | first=Franlyn | last=Barrett | date=11 December 1929 | location=Sydney | publisher=Everyones Ltd | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-577283355 | id=nla.obj-577283355 | access-date=17 August 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref>
Barrett moved to New Zealand with his brother and father to work as a clerk for the latter. He began to experiment with shooting movies, and in 1901 won a prize of £15 for some of his photos. Barrett accompanied the Duke of York on his 1901 tour of Australia in capacity as photographer.<ref name="Paramount"/> He worked for eight months with the Charles Urban Trading Co. Ltd in England. In New Zealand, Barrett made his first film, ''A Message from Mars''.<ref name="when"/>
==Australian career== Barrett moved to Australia in 1904, where he worked for several theatre companies.<ref>{{Citation | first=Franklyn | last=Barrett | title=Turn Buck the Universe and Talk of Yesterday For "Everyones" | journal=Everyones | date=14 December 1932 | location=Sydney | publisher=Everyones Ltd | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-585209817 | id=nla.obj-585209817 | access-date=17 August 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref> He was the first person to film the Melbourne Cup from start to finish in 1904, and shot several "scenic movies" for the New Zealand and New South Wales railways.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45025796 |title=A Maker of Films |newspaper=The Barrier Miner |location=Broken Hill, NSW |date=20 March 1908 |access-date=10 December 2014 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Barrett joined the Melbourne office of Pathé Frères in 1908. He toured through the South Pacific taking films for them.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120134486 |title=Theatrical |newspaper=Referee |issue=1222 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=6 April 1910 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=15 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120138808 |title=Theatrical |newspaper=Referee |issue=1210 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=12 January 1910 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=15 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Barrett stayed with them when West's Pictures took over in 1911.<ref name="ADB">{{Cite journal |last=Rutledge |first=Martha |date=1979 |title=Walter Franklyn Barrett (1873–1964) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barrett-walter-franklyn-5145/text8615 |journal=Australian Dictionary of Biography |publisher=Melbourne University Press |volume=7}}</ref><ref name="when"/> He later wrote "After a period abroad as buyer, I decided that it was time to settle down. It was not the first time I had arrived at this decision and it certainly was not the last. I settled in on Australian dramas."<ref name="when"/>
===Drama director=== In August 1911 Barrett returned to Australia from an overseas trip and decided to make drama films for Wests.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221551242 |title=Bioscope Photograph Studio |newspaper=The Sun (Sydney) |issue=345 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=7 August 1911 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He helped build their new studio.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article102805251 |title=Theatrical Gossip. |newspaper=The Newsletter: an Australian Paper for Australian People |volume=14 |issue=50 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=26 August 1911 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> His first film for the company appears to have been a film of the stage play ''The Christian'' (1911)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15291756 |title=The Glaciarium |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=23,048 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=25 November 1911 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> followed by ''All for Gold, or Jumping the Claim'', although ''All for Gold'' was released first.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221527003 |title=For Love and Lucre |newspaper=The Sun |issue=401 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=11 October 1911 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Barrett said in October 1911, "I have had more pleasure in cinematographing ''All for Gold,'' for West's than in all the others [films he made] put together."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128269269 |title=Facing Death |newspaper=The World's News |issue=514 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=21 October 1911 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Barrett continued to make documentary or scenic films for West's such as the 1911 Melbourne Cup.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115291245 |title=Picture Shows |newspaper=Evening News |issue=13,852 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=31 October 1911 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He made a series of thrillers for the company, often with the same cast: ''The Strangler's Grip'' (1912), ''The Mystery of the Black Pearl'' (1912), ''The Eleventh Hour'' (1912) and ''A Silent Witness'' (1913).
In 1913 West's merged with Australasian Films and Barrett joined the Fraser Film Release and Photographic Company, for whom he directed ''A Blue Gum Romance'' (1913) and ''The Life of a Jackeroo'' (1913). He also shot ''Pommy Arrives in Australia'' (1913) for director Raymond Longford. In December 1913 Barrett left on an overseas trip for two years.<ref>{{Citation | title=At Poverty Point | journal=The Bulletin | date=11 December 1913 | location=Sydney, N.S.W | publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-686377601 | id=nla.obj-686377601 | access-date=16 August 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref>
Barrett returned to Australia in December 1915 having bought the rights to the novel ''The Pioneeers'', which he then adapted into a film.<ref>{{Citation | title=AT POVERTY POINT. | journal=The Bulletin | date=30 December 1915 | location=Sydney, N.S.W | publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-678992775 | id=nla.obj-678992775 | access-date=16 August 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref> He worked as a cinematographer on films such as ''The Joan of Arc of Loos'' (1916), Raymond Longford's ''The Mutiny of the Bounty'' (1916) and Jack Gavin's ''The Murder of Captain Fryatt'' (1917). Barrett intended to make a film with Dorothy Brunton but when she became unavailable obtained the rights to ''The Monk and the Woman'' (1917). He made the war film ''Australia's Peril'' (1917) and shot footage for ''A Romance of the Burke and Wills Expedition of 1860'' (1918).
Barrett was cinematographer (and possibly uncredited director) on the first two movies from Snowy Baker, ''The Enemy Within'' (1918) and ''The Lure of the Bush'' (1918), co producing the latter. Around this time he and the author of "Lure of the Bush", Percy Reay, registered for copyright "The Adventures of Barry Lupino Detective".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=3442168&isAv=N |title=Copyright Registration |date=4 February 1919 |publisher=National Archives of Australia |access-date=18 March 2026}}</ref> He directed the film adaptation ''Struck Oil'' (1919) of the stage hit.
In 1920 he was part of the Golden Wattle Film Syndicate which made the film adaptation of the stage success ''The Breaking of the Drought'', written by Reay and directed by Barrett. Barrett then formed his own film company with solicitor Barry Kenward, with whom he made three features: ''A Girl of the Bush'' (1921), ''Know Thy Child'' (1921) and ''A Rough Passage'' (1922). This company folded in May 1922.
===Later career=== Barrett moved into theatre management, running the Capitol Theatre in Canberra in 1925, then various cinemas for Hoyts Theatres from 1927 onwards.<ref name="ADB"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1219525 |title=OLDEST MOVIE MAN. |newspaper=The Canberra Times |date=15 November 1927 |access-date=10 December 2014 |page=1 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In the mid 1920s he was associated with the Australian Motion Picture Producers Association.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16197943 |title=PICTURE FILMS. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=27,179 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=13 February 1925 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16191306 |title=AUSTRALIAN-MADE PICTURES. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=27,201 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=11 March 1925 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He spoke in support of the local industry and in 1925 expressed interest in some projects he still wished to make but these were never filmed.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203140557 |title=Australian Film Industry. |newspaper=The Evening News |issue=875 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=23 May 1925 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In 1930 Barrett wrote, "the value of Australian-made pictures lies in the fact that they must be different. Point for point, we cannot hope' to compete with the splendid productions w" are receiving from across the Pacific Ocean...But if we stick to the type of dhat,. isnatural to us, comparisons cannot be-made' and we have a big chance of interesting the overseas market."<ref name="please"/>
In 1936 Barrett was working as an exhibitor. A trade paper called him "A cheerful personality... a man who thoroughly knows his job, and one who could reca11 many interesting reminiscences about anything or anybody associated with the picture business in Australia."<ref>{{Citation | title=Showmen's Corner • • • • | journal=Everyones. | date=29 July 1936 | location=Sydney | publisher=Everyones Ltd | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-570472530 | id=nla.obj-570472530 | access-date=16 August 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref>
He died at Randwick, New South Wales on 16 July 1964, and was cremated.<ref name="ADB" />
==Personal life== Born Walter Franklyn Brown, son of William Brown and Matilda, née Hopwell, Barrett was already a widower by the time he married Mabel Muriel Pile in Perth on 10 December 1906.<ref name="ADB"/> She predeceased him but the daughter they had together, Harrie "Todds" Barrett, survived him.<ref name="ADB"/> Todds Barrett went on to become a successful businesswoman.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20071116163423/http://www.gordonmoyes.com/2007/08/14/todds-barrett/ Gordon Moyes, 'Todds Barrett', Gordonmoyes.com, National Library of Australia, Tuesday, 14 August 2007]}} accessed 10 May 2012</ref>
Franklyn and Mabel's house at 6 Barrett Place Randwick, their home from 1911 to 1926, has a Bicentennial commemorative plaque.<ref>[http://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/About_Randwick/Heritage/Plaque_23/index.aspx 'Plaque 23', ''Randwick City Council''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130429002448/http://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/About_Randwick/Heritage/Plaque_23/index.aspx |date=29 April 2013 }} accessed 10 May 2012</ref>
==Select filmography== *''Dummy Mace'' (1901) – cinematographer, director – a staged 3 round boxing match <ref name=FH1>{{cite news |title=Film History: Where Wellington Stands |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19270210.2.147?items_per_page=10&query=dummy+mace&snippet=true |access-date=23 December 2022 |work=Dominion |issue=116 |publisher=Papers Past |date=10 Feb 1927 |page=15}}</ref> *''A Message from Mars'' (1903) – cinematographer, director *''Ally Sloper as a conjuror'' (1903) – cinematographer, director<ref name=FH1/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263631215 |title=PRODUCTION OF MOVING PICTURES-- IN AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA. |newspaper=Australian Town and Country Journal |volume=XCVIII |issue=2555 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=18 December 1918 |access-date=21 November 2023 |page=20 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''Ally Sloper on Holiday'' (1903) – cinematographer, director<ref name=FH1/> *''Ally Sloper at the Races'' (1903) – cinematographer, director<ref name=FH1/> *''The Melbourne Cup'' (1904) – cinematographer, director *''The Sea Coasts of New Zealand'' (1908) – cinematographer *''The Christian'' (1911) – cinematographer, director *''All for Gold, or Jumping the Claim'' (1911) – cinematographer, director *''Sirens of the Surf'' (1911) (documentary)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120692115 |title=GLACIARIUM—WEST'S PICTURES. |newspaper=Sunday Times |issue=1357 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=24 December 1911 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''Johnson's Juggernauts'' (1912) (short)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239052141 |title=WESTS PICTURES. |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |issue=10218 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=24 February 1912 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''The Strangler's Grip'' (1912) – cinematographer *''The Mystery of the Black Pearl'' (1912) – cinematographer *''The Eleventh Hour'' (1912) – cinematographer *''A Silent Witness'' (1912) – cinematographer, director *''The Life of a Jackeroo'' (1913) – cinematographer, director *''Pommy Arrives in Australia'' (1913) – cinematographer *''A Blue Gum Romance'' (1913) – cinematographer, director *''The Pioneers'' (1916) – cinematographer, director *''The Joan of Arc of Loos'' (1916) – cinematographer *''The Mutiny of the Bounty'' (1916) – cinematographer *''The Murder of Captain Fryatt'' (1917) – cinematographer<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103828048 |title=A FEW STARS AND SCENES FROM PICTURE SCREENS. |newspaper=The Mirror of Australia |issue=80 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=20 January 1917 |accessdate=16 August 2024 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''The Monk and the Woman'' (1917) – director *''Australia's Peril'' (1917) – cinematographer, director *''The Enemy Within'' (1918) – cinematographer *''A Romance of Burke and Wills Expedition of 1860'' (1918) – cinematographer<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122785432 |title=Making Local Films |newspaper=The Sunday Times |location=Sydney |date=11 November 1917 |access-date=10 December 2014 |page=25 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''The Lure of the Bush'' (1918) – cinematographer *''Struck Oil'' (1919) – director *''The Breaking of the Drought'' (1920) – cinematographer, director *''A Girl of the Bush'' (1921) – cinematographer, director *''Know Thy Child'' (1921) – cinematographer, director *''A Rough Passage'' (1922) – cinematographer, director
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|id=0057136|name=Franklyn Barrett}} *[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barrett-walter-franklyn-5145 Franklyn Barrett] at Australian Dictionary of Biography *[https://web.archive.org/web/20111004124401/http://www.nfsa.gov.au/blog/2011/05/23/franklyn-barrett/ Article on Barrett's 1925 Tour of Queensland] *[http://trove.nla.gov.au/result?q=subject%3A%22Barrett%2C+Franklyn.%22 Franklyn Barrett] at Trove *[http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=Person%3A%22%2FPerson%2Fkey%2F803-1%22;querytype=;resCount=10 Franklyn Barrett items] at National Film and Sound Archive {{Franklyn Barrett}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, Franklyn}} Category:1900s in New Zealand cinema Category:Australian film directors Category:Australian cinematographers Category:1873 births Category:1964 deaths